Magic Within

    How can a person be anything other then what they are born to be?

    If magic was a choice—that is, a skill learned—Faith could then understand why it would be wrong. What she couldn’t understand was why good people were stoned and burned to death when magic was as natural to them as breathing was to everyone. She hadn’t understood when she had been ripped from her mother’s arms, or when she’d been forced to watch her parents first stoned then burned. Now, five years later, she still did not understand why magic was so wrong.

    She had been ten when her parents were murdered. Magic had been part of them, even at that young age she had understood that much. Her mother’s magic had been the magic of healing and her father’s was that of reading the weather; both had been powerful, both had been good people, and both had been murdered by the people of this “good” town.

    Now the temple watched Faith closely, examining her once each season, just in case she was to follow in her parent’s path.

     More then once she had wished that she could be more like her parents. She wished that some small part of their talent had been passed down to her. Daily she feared forgetting them as she went about the work set to her by the matron of the temple house. If she couldn’t be more like her parents then she wished that the temple would just forget about her and let her vanish among the other orphans here.

    She finished weeding her section of the garden then carried her basket of weeds to the barrel where they would be burned. Careful not to let the flames touch her basket, she dumped the weeds into the flames and watched them blacken.

    “Keep in mind the lesson those weeds teach,” the grave voice of a priest came from the house doorway behind her.

    “Lesson? They are but weeds I have pulled from the garden.”

    The old priest descended the steps, “Ah, but are not even weeds plants?”

    “Yes, honored one, but they are unwanted plants that would only kill off the good ones.” She had to force herself not to back away from the priest as he came towards her. Even when she was not being examined it felt as if the priests were all just waiting for her to mess up somehow.

    “When you are working in the gardens, do you not search for these unwanted, or should I say bad, plants with the intention of tearing them out from among the good plants. Also, while you are searching do you not have the full intention of burning them so that they may not put their roots down else were?”

    “Yes, I suppose…” her voice drifted off as she was starting to see where he might be going with this.

    “This country is a garden, the temple has charge of that garden. Just as you are always certain to find every weed, believe me, the temple will always find every evil person who would let the vileness of magic take them over and the temple will remove them from the world so they may not lay roots anywhere else.”

    “I am sorry, honored one, but you are wrong.” The words were out before she had thought about who she was speaking to. She quickly dropped her gaze to his chubby feet that stuck out from under his gray robes.

    “Explain yourself!”

    Faith licked her suddenly dry lips and kept her eyes down as she answered, “Those with use of magic, they do not choose it. It is as much a part of them as—well as your eyesight is a part of you. If the country is a garden, as you suggest, then the weeds would be those who steel, cheat or murder the innocent…”

    She was cut off by the back of his hand connecting sharply with her cheek with enough force to stagger her back a few steps.  She forced herself not to raise her hand to her cheek, there was no way she would let this priest see weakness in her.

    “Speak like that again and you will find yourself once more in the room of inquiry. Remember what will happen if there is even a hint that you have chosen to turn to the dark one and his powers.”

    Faith knew all too well the threatening tone in his voice and gave only a silent bow of acknowledgement; anything more risked him interpreting it wrong.

    “That is better.” The anger already seemed to be to gone from the priest’s voice. “Go inside to the matron’s office. You have been summoned.”

    Faith bowed again to him then hurried inside, pausing only long enough to wash the dirt from her hands and arms before running to the matron’s office at the front of the building. No one ever dared to make the matron wait any longer then what was absolutely necessary.

    The matron looked up when Faith entered then went back to her paperwork. “A nobleman was here, he saw you and desired to adopt you. Gather your belongings then you are to go to him at the Wanderer’s Door. He is a traveler so make haste!”

    Faith stared at the matron, she had thought that the temple would never allow her to be taken from where they could keep a close eye on her. “Matron, is there perhaps a mistake? Are you certain that he wanted me? Does the temple know? I thought the temple…”

    “The temple has approved the adoption since you will be taken out of the country. Lord Graydon already has all of the paperwork. Now hurry along, girl!” the matron made a shooing motion with her hands, “you do not want to keep the man waiting.”

    Faith lost no time in running to her room and throwing her few belongings into a sack then changed into the simple blue gown that had been laid out for her.  All she owned was two changed of clothing then a few odds and ends that she’d found and kept. In no time at all she was running down the street to the inn favored by foreign travelers.

    Hold, child,” a man sitting on a horse called to her as she touched the inn’s door. When she turned to him he smiled, “You are the girl called Faith?”

    “Yes, my lord,” she looked up at him, he certainly had a kind face. “Are you the one I was told to come here to find?”

    “I am Allen Grayden of Varsh,” he answered with a nod then held a hand out to her, “For now you will have to ride in front of me. When we reach the woods there will be other arrangements.”

    Remembering the name that the matron had used Faith did not hesitate about taking his hand and letting him help her onto his horse. Having never ridden before she was instantly struck with how horribly high she was, it was only slightly comforting when his arm around her waist pulled her close to his chest.

    “Relax, child, I will not let you fall.”

    Then they were off, the horse barely seemed to notice that it now carried two riders. The rocking motion of the horse wasn’t too bad so long as she kept her eyes closed; to open her eyes was to see exactly how fast they were moving.

    Her hands soon hurt from the tight grip she had on her sack, yet she couldn’t bring herself to loosen her fingers. Inside she was confused, she was afraid of what this new life would bring, yet at the same time she was excited to be seeing something new and relived to be getting away from the temple.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

    Faith woke slowly, the night before was a pleasant haze filled with laughter and music once they had joined the caravan in the woods. 

     As she sat up she felt something shift in her hair. Reaching up she felt the delicate chains of the head piece Lord Grayson had set on her as he declared to everyone around the fire that she was now his daughter and heir.

    Smiling thoughtfully, Faith quietly left her tent. The entire camp was silent, smoke from the fires of the night before  still hung in the air, mixing with the early morning fog and creating a sense of a new beginning.

    Drawn by the sound of water, she crept out of the camp. She hoped to be able to wash up in the stream or lake before anyone else woke up. This morning was certainly a new beginning and she wanted to greet it feeling as fresh as possible.

    Only a few yards from the edge of the camp and she came to a pond. Even in the early light the water glistened as it softly lapped the shore, moved by a gentle breeze.

    There was a sense of peace, the like of which she had never known in the temple house. For the first time in years it did not feel as if some one was waiting for her to mess up; there was no one here to look over her shoulder suspiciously. The peace drew her mind back to how it had been with her parents on their little farm far from anyone.

    She knelt on a rock beside the water and closed her eyes to drink in the stillness. In a place like this her father probably would have felt a pull from nature as it told him what weather was coming—she imagined that she felt the same pull, just for a moment letting herself believe that some part of him did live yet in her.

    Without fully knowing why, she held one hand down by the water, paused, and then slowly raised the hand in front of her until it was over the level of her head. While the air around her was cool she suddenly noticed that her hand felt oddly warm, the warmth seemed most intense around her index finger.

    Opening her eyes she gasped, the finger seemed to glow with a blue-white light just as her mother’s hands would when she was healing someone. Looking down she gasped again, hovering just above the water’s surface was a ball of water, gleaming with the same light as her finger.

    “I knew it when I first saw you.”

    Faith sprang to her feet and turned as the ball of water dropped back into the pond. Lord Graydon had been watching her from a little ways off; he was not walking towards her with a proud smile.

    “My lord, I do not know how…” tears burned in her eyes as she thought of what the temple would do to her when this man turned her in. Surely he was proud that he had been able to do what the temple had not managed—he had caught her displaying the same magic as her parents.

    “Pease, Faith, your temple can not touch you anymore. I have adopted you, filling out all of their papers and I have claimed publicly as my heir. Where we are going the temples will gladly teach you how to control and use the power that is very much a part of you.”

    “Then you will not be turning me in?” the question seemed a little silly, yet she just had to hear what he was say, she had to hear the words.

    The lord laughed and softly pulled her into a hug, “No, daughter, I plan to take you home with me. I was never strong enough for the temples in Varsh to train, however I am strong enough to see the magic in you. That is why I chose you.”

    Faith clung to him, fully relaxing for the first time in years. If before she had thought that this was all a new beginning she was now certain of it. Today everything was new—including who she was. Today she knew that, like her parents, she too had magic within.